Posts tagged with: michigan

On Tuesday evening, Acton Communications Specialist Elise Hilton led a great discussion on the topic of “The Real War On Women” at Acton On Tap, held at San Chez Bistro in Downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Beginning in 2010, the phrase “War on Women” became common in political discussions in the United States. Primarily, it has been used by those on the left who believe that there is an orchestrated effort to keep birth control out of the hands of women, to make abortion illegal, and to place other restrictions on women and their health care.

Hilton contends that this is not the real “war on women,” and examines these issues in light of women’s health, along with other issues affecting girls and women, such as the erosion of our religious liberty, sexually objectifying women, human trafficking, gender-selective abortions and infanticide.

You can listen to the audio of Tuesday’s event via the audio player below.

Michigan Capitol Confidential (CapCon) is reporting today that the city of Grand Rapids, Mich., is selectively releasing what should be public information regarding Acton Institute’s tax status in an on-going dispute between Acton and the city.

Grand Rapids city officials gave detailed information about a tax dispute involving the Acton Institute to a select reporter, but not to the nonprofit fighting to prove it is a charitable organization, according to documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

In fact, an Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty official complained that the organization was struggling to get information about the appeal of its rejection of an application for tax exemption just two business days before a scheduled hearing.

City attorney Catherine Mish, while not communicating with the Acton Institute, has been exchanging emails with an MLive reporter regarding this dispute. (more…)

The Department of Health and Human Services, under the direction of Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration, has a website aimed at stopping bullies: StopBullying.gov. While it has pages for parents, kids, educators and other community members, it apparently needs to add a page for politicians.

Michigan resident Julie Boonstra is currently featured in a tv commercial funded by Americans for Prosperity. Boonstra suffers from leukemia, and lost her health insurance due to the Affordable Care Act. She calls out Democratic Senate candidate Gary Peters for voting for Obamacare. Peters doesn’t like that, and he’s turned to bullying tactics: (more…)

That’s why I’ve started a crowdfunding campaign to redeem the DIA. The federal judge overseeing the proceedings wants to raise $500 million to privatize the DIA and keep it in Detroit. He’s gathered together a number of charitable foundations. But individuals have a role to play, too. A former Wayne State University professor has donated $5 million. That leaves $495 million to go by my count. And that’s the goal for the “Redeem the DIA” campaign at Razoo.

But we’re nothing if not forgiving here at Acton, so if you weren’t able to be there, we’re posting the audio of Jordan’s talk below. Enjoy, and watch this space for info on our next Acton on Tap event!

Now one could argue about the details of the DIA’s day-to-day operations, the compensation package for its director, and so on. But apart from these details of stewardship of the DIA itself, the real object lesson in bad stewardship has to do with the city government. Rife with structural corruption, cronyism, and incompetence, the city has been unable to provide the basic services and protection that it is responsible for, despite the best efforts of so many individuals working within the city government. So when the city cannot do the primary things it needs to do, it should lose the privilege of overseeing the secondary things, at the very least until it proves itself to be a responsible steward.(more…)

Earlier this year I argued for a plan that would privatize the DIA, allowing for the City of Detroit to cash in on a measure of the collection’s worth to satisfy creditors and simultaneously protect the DIA’s artwork from being parceled out in bankruptcy proceedings. At the time, I had doubts about the practicability of the idea. I figured that even if such a path were to be pursued that the DIA would likely end up torn apart like a chew toy. Once the city’s creditors realize that they might be able to extract something of value from the DIA, they have all the incentive in the world to demand an exorbitant price for privatizing the DIA. Likewise the city officials would have a massive bargaining chip they could use to extract as much as possible from potential donors.

I still have doubts about the privatization plan’s practicability, but the prospects do seem a bit brighter now that Judge Gerald Rosen has determined that the City of Detroit is eligible to file for bankruptcy. This is because Judge Rosen is one of the leading advocates for a privatization plan. Rumors like this have been simmering in the media for weeks, but according to the Detroit Free Press, now “some of the city’s most powerful leaders are working furiously to fashion a grand bargain in which nonprofit foundations would put up $500 million to spin off the Detroit Institute of Arts from the city, and that money would be used to reduce pension cuts and help rebuild city services.” Apparently Judge Rosen is using his influence to encourage “some of the country’s largest charitable foundations and their smaller local cousins to pony up the money.”(more…)